Not enough hours in the day...

Sunday, 1 February 2015

I actually daren't even check the date of my last blog entry. I admit, no matter how many times I insist I will be better at blogging I just never am! And as far as lame excuses go I have that nailed hands down... I'm just very busy!I think any wannabe author will tell you that it's really quite difficult balancing life when you have a full time job and write stories on the side, especially when you have a home to run, a husband to look after and a crazy beagle pup who is the most adorable thing you've ever seen!!Anyway pathetic excuses over with, i've been so busy over the Christmas period trying to finish my next book. I've edited nearly half of it now so it shouldn't be too much longer until I can get it up on Kindle for you to enjoy....hopefully!And the good news is (for me anyway) that I already have two other books completed in draft form so only have edits to do on those before I can upload those too.Perhaps you would like to read a sample of my work? (Subject to slight changes through final edit)

∞ Chapter Three ∞

The party, as I expected it would be in
typical teenage fashion, is just another excuse for everyone to get drunk and
feel each other up. Not that I’m against either of those things particularly;
it just feels incredibly awkward following the conversation Daniel and I had in
the car.

“Eden!” Karen makes her way towards me
holding a bottle of wine loosely in her hand, a straw sticking out of the top
of it.

“Hi,” I smile. “Where were you today?”
Noticing in fifth period English that she was absent from her usual spot next
to me.

“Oh I didn’t do the homework and if I get
another detention for that my parents will kill me! And Vin said he was going
to cut class anyway to practice with his band so I went with him.” She stared
off into space dreamily talking about her new infatuation.

I laugh at my friend. She was one of
those girls who was brutally honest and yet ridiculously happy all the time,
and her obsession with boys was paralleled only by her love of drinking wine
through a straw!

“Ladies.” Daniel offered us the cups in
his hands as he approached us from the kitchen.

I took mine, just a plain beer, and took
a sip as Daniel opened the bottle top on his water since he was designated
driver tonight.

“So when are you two going to make it
official then?” Karen nudged Daniel playfully whilst looking at me with a gleam
in her eye to which I retaliated with a murderous gaze in her direction.

I feel the blood rush to my cheeks
suddenly, I want to ground to open up and swallow me right now.

I raise an eye brow at him and he smiles.
Why does he like making me feel so damn uncomfortable? He knows I hate drama of
any kind.

“Come on Eden, you need to snap this one
up before someone else does. Guys like Daniel and Vin don’t wait around
forever, not where there’s like a million girls after them!” she says
dramatically, taking out her phone and laughing suggestively at a text that is
so obviously from Vin.

“You should really listen to Kaz, she
knows what she’s talking about.” Daniel says as he moves closer to me, forcing
me to take a step backwards.

“Daniel,” I squirm.

He puts his hands on my shoulders and
runs them down my arms in a move that I think is meant to make me weak in the
knees but actually makes me feel strange. I have to get away from him.

“Daniel, stop.” I plead and he instantly
steps back, looking at me with annoyance and I instantly feel guilty.

This is the precise reason why I’ve only
ever avoided the subject. If I agree to be his girlfriend then I risk feeling
that strange sensation in my gut that I’m doing something wrong and if I tell
him I don’t want to be his girlfriend then I risk losing him forever because I
get the impression that he isn’t going to take no for an answer.

I touch his shoulder gently and give him
a reassuring smile, coaxing the annoyed look off his face and hoping that this
will suffice for now. There’s no two ways about it, I’m being a coward and I
know it, but selfishly I’m not ready to deal with the aftermath of whatever my
decision may be.

“I’m going to get another drink.” Daniel
says a little frostily and I take it that he’s mad.

I nod even as he is walking away, leaving
me alone in the now over crowded living area with music blaring out through
some gigantic speakers by the equally large television.

I look around, hoping Karen hasn’t gone
too far but I don’t see her. Luckily though I spy Michael and Ellen, two of my
other friends who are as alien to these parties as I am.

“Was that Daniel I saw storming off to
the beer station just now?” Ellen queries as I take a seat with them on the
couch.

I smile reluctantly.

“When are you going to tell him the truth
and get rid of him?” Michael asks, taking me by surprise.

“What do you mean?”

“Well it’s obvious you don’t love him, if
you did you would have accepted his feelings for you a long time ago.” Michael
shrugs and I am loathe to admit he’s right.

“He’s so protective of you, and not in a
good way. It’s almost like he sees you as a possession of his. Do you have any
idea how many guys have wanted to ask you out this year alone?”

“And everyone one of them has ended up
with a black eye!”

“What?”

“I can’t explain it Eden, it’s just that
he has been weaselling himself into your life since the day he arrived here and
some of us think it’s weird that’s all.”

I’m speechless. I had no idea my friends
thought of Daniel this way. I’d always assumed that they liked him as much as
me and Karen did, because he’d been hanging around with us for the best part of
two years now.

Now, the fact that Michael and Ellen
hardly ever came to these parties with us made sense, they didn’t like Daniel.
Why hadn’t they told me how they felt before though?

Maybe because I wouldn’t have listened.

Part of me thinks it’s silly to see truth
in what they say about him but there is definitely a small part of me that
doesn’t want to admit the truth in their words.

“Please don’t hate us.” Ellen pleads in
her angelic voice.

“I could never hate you. Thanks for being
honest.”

“Anytime,” Michael says with a smile.
“Have you seen Karen?”

“Last I saw her she was walking through
to the kitchen, laughing at a text from Vin.”

“Now there’s a drama waiting to happen.”

“Michael when did you become such a
bitch?” Ellen laughs.

He shrugs. “Just calling it how it is.”

“I’ll go find her.”

I make my way to the kitchen, hoping I
won’t have to turn right back round again if Karen or Daniel aren’t in there.

I want to die the moment I step foot in
there. There’s a game of suck and blow going on and Daniel is up next. Without
noticing me he turns to Polly Kent who goes to take the credit card from his
mouth before he blows it to the floor and plants his lips on hers hungrily.

I try to look anywhere but at them as
they suck each others faces off.

Polly pulls back from him and drunkenly
falls into Daniel’s arms, proceeding to feel his biceps, giggling at him like a
little Justin Bieber fan.

I back away slowly, feeling a mixture of
hurt and relief, and I’m not sure how to take that feeling. I’m kind of hurt
that he’s spent so much time trying to convince me that he’s the one for me and
yet can so easily kiss another girl. And I’m relieved because maybe this is for
the best? I mean I don’t feel for him the way he does for me, or the way he
says he feels for me so surely him kissing other girls is only a good thing?

Luckily, and I use the term loosely, another half hour later and I get another
headache as I’m sat chatting with Michael and Ellen. So I decide to make a
quick exit before Daniel attempts to escape Polly’s wandering hands, if he
wants to that is.

Ignoring a few drunken leers from some of
the boys standing around on the front lawn I walk home briskly, hoping the
fresh autumn air will sort out the throbbing pain in my head.

The headaches started the day after my
sixteenth birthday, just over a year ago. At first they were infrequent and
hardly registered on the pain scale, more like dull aches in the back of my
head now and again. But lately they had become not only more frequent but also
heart stoppingly painful too.

By the time I arrive home, truly
regretting my decision to walk the thirty minute walk back to my house across
town in the blistering October wind, my vision has become blurry with the pain.
The only relief I can get is to shut my eyes and drown out sounds by cupping my
hands tightly over my ears.

I climb into bed fully clothed, choosing
not to respond to a message from Daniel asking where I disappeared to and once
again reiterating his intentions for our relationship.

My guess is he started drinking after I
left the party, probably even before then when he became angry with me and I don’t
want to deal with that can of worms whilst battling the mother of all
headaches.

In the time since the accident, my
father, when he isn’t in the kitchen cooking whatever recipes my mother loved
to make, he’s off in his workshop crafting pieces for his carpentry company. So
he doesn’t see me almost stumble through the front door and race up the stairs
to make it to my bed before I pass out.

My room feels hot, and I reprimand myself
for closing the window earlier. But as I cross to my bed I place a hand on the
radiator and discover it is stone cold, and I wonder how I can feel like
there’s a volcano heating up inside me when the heating isn’t even on.

I rapidly change for bed, opting for
shorts and a cami top and fling myself down on the bed, not even bothering to
get changed or get under the covers. And
I do what I discovered is the only thing that helps me sleep when the headaches
hit me, I sing to myself.

What do you think? I hope you're intrigued to want to read the book? It's still a work in progress (a slow progress...) but I appreciate any feedback. You can contact me on my blog, on my Facebook page (Lindsay Michaels) or on my Twitter page (@LindsayBooks)

Sunday, 17 August 2014

Once again my intentions to be super organised and the world's best blogger have failed dismally! In my defense however i've had a busy time at work recently, a million personal things to deal and now to top it all I got a new dog!! His name is Bentley, he's an 8 month old Beagle and he is utterly adorable (if not a little naughty....)

Excuses aside however I am desperately trying to finish my next book before the end of this year.

Now before I let you see the exert from the book I want to explain a bit about it. This book is the very first book that made me seriously consider being a writer. Over ten years ago now, the idea for this book randomly sprang into my mind one day. However being young and not having much direction in my life back then as a teenager I never followed the idea through. But needless to say that book idea has stayed with me all this time.

When I published my first book at the beginning of this year, i'd decided to go with a simple and easy to read romance book because I do love anything to do with love! But my first love when it comes to book genres is anything supernatural/paranormal and that's always been the direction i've wanted my writing to go in. It just seemed a little bit out of reach to me as a first novel, having had no experience writing novels before - hence why I published a romance first. Now I was going to wait, publish a few more romance books and gain some valuable experience in order to help me write things of a more complex nature but just recently i've felt desperate to finish my first idea for a novel and I consequently have big plans for it.

This is the first book in a series - though at the moment I am unsure how many more books there will be to follow it, maybe one, maybe two, i'm not entirely sure; i'm just going to see where the writing takes me.....

So here goes - please find below an exert from book one in the Althea Academy series - Eden.

Any comments/thoughts you may have are always welcome.

Enjoy x

Prologue

When I was a child I used to have the
most bizarre and strangely animated dreams.

I dreamed of faraway lands that no one
knew existed and people with super human powers existing knowingly among us.

My mother and father always used to tell
me that I had a wonderful imagination to dream up such fantastic stories and
that I should embrace it, revere it and be proud that I was capable of such
imaginary wonder. They would laugh gleefully at my stories, as though I was the
world’s best story teller and as a child I gratefully accepted their adoration.

So I would spend endless hours acting out
my dreams in reality with my best friend Daniel. We would play in my garden
from sun up to sun down, pretending to be super heroes, laughing with the
frivolity of it all, as kids do, as we pretended to save people from baddies
who could incinerate you with fire balls from their hands. In my early years I could think of no
better way to spend a day.

Only as the years passed, my once awe
inspiring dreams became nightmares I could never have imagined; the bad people gradually
started to turn into unthinkable monsters that I could not even comprehend;
monsters who did unspeakable things with such malice a child could never
understand. They gave me chills even in my waking moments and I was too scared
to think about them, let alone pretend to fight against them with my pretend
powers which felt altogether less powerful somehow by comparison.

So we stopped playing our favourite make
believe game, Daniel and I, from then onwards. And I faced the unavoidable
nightly dreams by myself; throwing myself into life any way I could think of in
order to exhaust myself in the hopes of a deep dreamless slumber each night.

I questioned my sanity on more than one
occasion as I grew up; seeing how happy and content all of my friends were with
their lives, seemingly unaffected by nightmarish entities who felt so real I
could almost touch them.

But as the years passed, the older I got
and with help from a psychiatrist my parents insisted I go to, the dreams
plagued me less and less until one day they stopped happening altogether. And now as a
teenager I could hardly remember the other worlds I’d created in my head or the
happiness and comfort I’d felt at being around the fictitious people with super
human strength.

But I never forgot the nightmares, no
matter how hard I tried; the monsters, the bad people who made my skin crawl
and the other one that haunted me even now to this day. I never forgot about her;
the girl with the red tipped hair and black ink crawling up her neck, staring
back at me with a passionate fire in her eyes. She was more terrifying than any
of the others I’d ever dreamed of.

Why was this fierce looking girl more frightening than some big ass scary monsters, you ask?

Well that was easy.....

She was scary because she was me.

My name is Eden Jefferson and this is a
story of how you shouldn’t always believe your parents when they tell you nightmares
are just a figment of an over active imagination; sometimes your worst nightmares
are real.

Saturday, 26 April 2014

I have recently had the pleasure
of reading and reviewing Felicia Tatum’s ‘Intoxicating Passion’ box set as part
of a review blast for the author. I hope you find this review encouraging and
enjoy my thoughts on this well written set of novellas.

Enjoy

ttfn x

Title - Intoxicating Passion Box Set

Author - Felicia Tatum

Genre - New Adult Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

Journey with Korah and Dane in
the Intoxicating Passion box set, as they battle their individual demons on the
way to finding a way to care for one another.

Korah Daniels is a
nineteen-year-old college student dealing with the aftermath of leaving an
abusive relationship. After letting down her guard, she meets a sexy guy at a
Halloween party, but quickly realizes her past isn’t as far gone as she hoped.
Will she be able to run from her abuser? Will she continue to hold her heart
dearly or will the mysterious Zorro find a way through?

Dane Davidson is the ultimate
playboy, never sticking around for more than one night. When he encounters
Angel Eyes, he discovers his heart isn’t as locked up as he imagined. The more
he learns of her, the greater he desires her, and wants to protect her. Will
Dane be able to let go of his past so he can have a future? Will Korah be the
one who makes him want to change?

The five Intoxicating Passion
novelettes take you along with Dane and Korah, as they face the answers to
life’s biggest questions.

My Review:

My overall impression of this
story as a whole is FANTASTIC! But I
appreciate that you (like me!) may need more than just a one word summary to
inspire you to click that download button; so here goes…

Intoxicating Passion is a set of
5 short stories (novelettes) making up one whole story. The story focusses on
two main characters, Korah Daniels and Dane Davidson; both immediately likable
in their own way. With Korah you get the immediate sense that she is someone
who has had some bad stuff happen in her past that affects her attitude towards
things in the present. She comes across as slightly impatient sometimes, a
little socially anxious and she doesn’t like being in the limelight at all,
preferring to be more of an observer in any situation. And there is one thing
that is also loudly evident about her; she has very little faith in men.
Unfortunately due to a not so nice past with an abusive ex-boyfriend Korah
automatically puts men into ‘types’ when she meets them and she’s quick to
judge them without really getting to know them. When you find out what she’s
endured however, you find yourself understanding why she acts like this. But
she never once acts like a victim though; if anything it’s obvious she is just trying
to get on with her life as best she can and the only times we see her past
actually affecting her is when she gets upset sometimes and cuddles her
childhood soft toy ‘Elle’ for comfort.

The main male character, Dane
Daniels, immediately doesn’t come across as the perfect guy; far from it in
fact. From the get go it’s clear he’s a player, a total womaniser who will be
far from the typical prince charming love interest. But it is also immediately
apparent that he uses his physical relationships as a way not to deal with his
actual emotions, masking a pain he doesn’t want to feel. Dane clearly has
issues with women from his own past experiences and it seems it’s always his
first instinct to run away rather than face the issues. He’s infuriating in the
sense that he just refuses to deal with his emotions, choosing instead to run
away from them, convinced that his womanising is the way to forget his feelings
and move on. But when you get past the fact that you kind of want to slap him
in the face, he is actually very likable and you find yourself wanting to tell
him it’s going to be okay; you’re sort of rooting for him from the beginning
even though you want to punch him!

Both characters face problems
unique to themselves, throughout the story as it unfolds. For Korah it’s the
abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend that hinders her chances at having a
happy ever after with anyone else because she can’t help but see the worst in
any man she meets. Unfortunately for her, the one guy she instantly feels an
attraction for is your typical bad boy who loves to sleep with a new woman
every night. So this fuels her belief that men are bad and they can’t be
trusted. She has a hard time with this fact, especially because no matter what
she does, she can’t rid herself of her ever increasing feelings for Dane. For
Dane, his problems stem from his past with women; being heart broken by a girl
and then his trust in women being obliterated by his mother only enforces to
him that women only hurt you if you let them into your heart. So his journey
really begins the moment he first lays eyes on Korah because of the instant
effect she has on him (which he rebels against every step of the way) causing
him to have to deal with the feelings he tries to keep buried.

On the whole the story basically tells
the tale of these two characters getting into an emotional game of not only
battling their own feelings with past issues but also their feelings for one
another. Korah can’t deny that she is attracted to Dane physically; she can’t
stop herself ogling him on more than one occasion but always reprimands herself
for doing it because she thinks she knows his type. And her lack of faith in
men is always there at the back of her mind telling her that Dane will just
hurt her, that he’s just after one thing. Dane on the other hand tries
desperately not to feel anything besides physical attraction to Korah because
sexual feelings are easier to deal with; with the other types of feelings, he
can’t handle them because they scare him to death. But the two of them are
unable to stop being drawn to each other no matter how hard they fight it. In
every encounter they share they must endure an infectious sexual chemistry that
literally leaps off the page at you and more often than not it sparks an
argument between them because they constantly try to fight it, getting mad at
each other when really they’re just mad at themselves for not having any
control over their feelings.

It was a refreshing change to
read characters who weren't stereotypically perfect and who didn’t have perfect
fairytale lives. It made them seem more real somehow because they both had
issues and flaws. I think because of this Korah and Dane helped to heal each
other in ways only someone who is broken can do; they both understood that if
you want to move forward all you can do is try rather than ‘hey presto’ everything
is fixed and we’re happy now.

My favourite part of the book was
in book five, at the end when Dane decides that the ‘elusive four letter word’
may not be so elusive after all and he wants to tell Korah that he loves her. When
he tells her he needs to talk and she sees that he is evidently nervous, she
automatically assumes that he’s going to end things with her and she tells him
it’s okay, getting upset in the process. Dane is shocked when he realises that
she thought he wanted to break up and he explains that he wants her to be his
girlfriend and that he loves her. Korah tells Dane that although she has
enjoyed her time with him she wants more; she wants all of him, even his
scarred heart. She is under no illusion that Dane isn’t your regular perfect
prince charming but he is real and he cares for her. She appreciates that
happily ever after doesn’t mean being happy 100% of the time and she’s okay
with that. Dane assures her that they will make it work and that he’s in it for
the long haul as she is stuck with him now because he won’t let her go.

Although I wasn’t sure it would
work, being a set of five short stories, I was surprised to find that I
actually loved it! Whereas with a lot of novels, you can often get dragged down
by the pages and pages of descriptive background story; with these novelettes
that isn’t the case at all. I think it’s fairly similar to watching a 30 minute
television show; from the offset you’re thrown into the story and due to the
short length of each book, every page has some sort of action that propels the
story forwards rapidly so by the end of the ‘episode’ you feel like shouting
‘NOOOOOOO!’ because you’re hanging on the edge of your seat desperate for a
continuation. It really did work very well and I’d be encouraged to read more
of these types of books. The actual writing style was easy to read, making the
story easy to follow which is always a must when I choose a book to read. And
the suspense element, as I said before about there being something happening on
every page, I was eager to turn each and every page just to find out what was
going to happen. A definite page turner!

I would definitely recommend this
book to anyone who likes a love story that isn’t as straight cut as ‘girl meets
boy, they fall in love, the end’. This book has a lot of ups and downs and both
characters endure a fair bit of emotional torment whilst fighting against
issues that have plagued them for a long time. But the struggle is actually
what makes the ending so much happier because although they don’t sail off into
the sunset, happily ever after; their acceptance of each other and their
admittance of their feelings makes all of the bad things they’ve been through
feel totally worth it. I guarantee you will love this story as much as I did
and afterwards you’ll be looking for your very own Dane Davidson to fix!

Felicia Tatum was born and raised
in Tennessee. She always loved reading, and at the age of twelve began writing.
Her passion for creating stories grew and in May 2012, she finally wrote her
first novel, The White Aura.

She still lives in Tennessee with
her daughter and her kitty. She loves cooking and books. Animals are some of
her best friends. She watches a lot of Disney channel and often dreams up new
book ideas. She's currently working on various other projects.

Monday, 14 April 2014

God I annoy myself with how crap I am at writing on my blog! Unfortunately I'm just one of those people who starts each week with all good intentions...

'This week I'm going to exercise every day and lose a dress size by Sunday...'

'This week I'm only going to eat clean meals, no processed crap will make its way past my lips...'

'My house is going to look like a palace all week, I'm going to keep it so clean...'

'I am going to write at least 50,000 words this week...'

'I'm going to write at least twice on my blog this week...'

Do any of these statements sound familiar to you too?

For some reason even though I start every week full of promise to be my perfect self it just never turns out that way. And not because I'm lazy! But because as I'm always saying, life just gets in the way. That or I'm just too tired to do anything after a long and grueling day at the office. So I decided tonight to make the most of being exhausted for once, rather than sitting in my nice, warm and comfy bed just reading my Kindle (which is my perfect night I might add...) I thought I'd make better use of my time by using 'chill out' time to update my blog and carry on with my book reviews. Yey!

And it's definitely time to make my blog be all pretty and awesome since (very excitingly) I'm taking part in a Review Blast on April 27th for another author. I am so excited about it too! I've already read the material and have put together some notes ready to write my reviews. Eek!

Whist I'm ridiculously excited about the book reviewing at the moment, I am also stupidly enthusiastic about the books I'm writing - which I guess you would hope I would be, trying to be an author and all that. The only problem is I realised the other day that I am actually working on 9 different stories at the moment and I have no idea how that happened!

Well actually I do...

I can be half way through writing a very exciting chapter in one book and abruptly have an idea for another story at the same time. Who knows what triggers that!? But anyway, so i'll rush through to finish the chapter I'm writing and then i'll open another document straight away and start to write a new story with no real prior planning...And that's how I've ended up with 9 stories on the go. I've seriously tried to reprimand myself for it and I've tried to be more stern with myself and the way I plan stories and organise writing time but honestly that's just how I work best, truth be told. I am one of those authors who gets bored easily and when I get bored, you can tell in my writing so I find the best way to keep my writing as good as I think it can be, is to keep shaking things up, swapping and changing between stories because then each and every time I come to add more to one of them, I'm looking at it with fresh and exciting eyes once again. My process wouldn't work for everyone however and if I was a full time writer I may well work differently but for now this is how I keep my writing mojo at its best.

So my hubby has just brought me a cup of tea and I'm taking that as my cue to end this post and go write another thousand words of...well who knows which book but it'll definitely be one of them... :-)

Sunday, 6 April 2014

Just a quick note to say what i've been up to lately since it's now the 6th April and I am still writing my first draft of my second book! I really didn't think it would take me this long but i'm enjoying it none the less.

I've pretty much been keeping myself busy writing whenever I can, writing book reviews and reading tons of new and old favorites lately. That and of course doing the usual every day things in life that keep us busy busy busy all the time. I just honestly don't know where all the time goes. It sort of feels like i'm stuck in a loop sometimes, the same day on repeat over and over again and in all that time I never do get to write as much as I want to and the deadlines I set myself get put further back. But I guess that's just the same for any aspiring/author.

Since I can't take my laptop on holiday when I go away in May, i've bought myself a brand spanking new notepad and downloaded tons of new books on my Kindle; i'm going to spend my week lounging by a pool, drinking cocktails and reviewing books to write up when I get home. Okay so maybe i'll write my reviews before I drink the cocktails otherwise the reviews could end up being more comical than beneficial! But I am very much looking forward to some down time with the hubby, even though I will have to drag him away from his Playstation in order to go on holiday in the first place...

I bought Disney's Frozen on DVD last week for my four year old nephew. I have to say that I think I was more engrossed in it than he was! I loved it. I love the fact that Disney characters always have a really hard struggle until they make it through to the other side, I nearly always shed a tear, and Elsa's story was no different. I quietly sniffled into my jumper sleeve a couple of times....And Olaf! Don't even get me started on that cuteness, a snowman who wants it to be summer...oh my! Ha! God I love Disney films! You're never too old for Disney.

My mum has been away in NZ and Australia the last three weeks, isn't it weird how you don't realise how much you see someone until they've gone on the trip of a life time for the better part of a month! I've periodically been round to check up on my dad and my younger brother to make sure they're still alive....which was questionable about my teenage brother who seems to spend most of his days in bed until after lunch time, except on school days. And i'm pretty sure my dad hasn't moved off the couch (other than to go to work) where he has just watched endless episodes of NCIS which I am sure he's seen before. In fact i'm pretty sure that upon mum's return she'll find them both in the exact positions she left them in before she went away....Still i'm sure she's missed them...

And i've finally decided to lose the three stone that a dietician told me to lose two years ago... erm yes i've made the decision but apparently just making the decision doesn't mean you automatically lose the weight :-( shame! So i've been trying to be better with my diet, though I don't like to say that i'm on a diet because the moment I do that I want to eat anything fried or covered in chocolate! But seriously, i'm just trying to cut out some of the bad things like crisps and other snacks and trying to drink more water, which is definitely one of my weaknesses. I've also started to do a bit more exercise which honestly just about kills me because I hate it! I'm one of those people who could actually spend an entire weekend sitting on my bum writing stories and not even realise there is a world outside to see. So any form of physical activity for me is just tiresome, and I don't just mean literally! But still I am trying, that's all any can do. And you never know, maybe in ten years i'll have lost the three stone (better make it four *she says as she eats another chocolate biscuit*)

Wow I just read all of that back and it sort of sounds like a diary, telling you all what i've been doing each day...how very uninteresting! Still the purpose of today's blog was only to point out that I am still working, still blogging, still living! I am just super busy trying to finish my second book and reviewing other author's work too. Yey! So all that's left is to say ttfn xx

Friday, 21 February 2014

PLEASE NOTE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!! (INC BOOK QUOTATIONS)

Since Alyssa Rose Ivy has very recently released a novella for the Crescent Chronicles series, and I read that rather eagerly and in record time, just desperate for even an inkling of an insight into some of my favorite characters; it put me in the mood to re-read the whole story from the very beginning, thus explaining my choice of 'Flight' for my first book review.

In short, the story is centred around a mature eighteen year old girl called Allie, who is looking to spend her last summer before starting college in a new and hopefully (she wishes) an exciting way.
Allie and her best friend Jess head to New Orleans after receiving a job offer from Allie's dad, to work in his hotel. But unbeknownst to Allie however, the hotel basement houses the headquarters to a powerful supernatural Society, a world which she becomes unwillingly thrust into thanks to the over confident hottie she meets; Levi Laurent, who also just so happens to be one of those supernaturals.

What I liked the most about Allie as the main character, was the fact that she wasn't your typical flaky girl; and by that I mean that she didn't immediately fall in love with Levi and therefore spend her entire inner dialogue swooning over him. If anything, Allie fights her feelings for Levi throughout the book, torn between the intensity of her feelings for the over confident Pteron prince and the fact that she doesn't want to get too close to him after her failings with previous relationships (and later in the book because he hurts her).

Allie goes to New Orleans knowing she has her life pretty much already set out before her; she has firm plans to attend Princeton and seems a mixture of pleased and anxious about it. However, it's obvious from the outset that as much as she appears to have a sensible head on her shoulders, part of her does seek adventure, excitement and thrills of some kind, in order to rebel against the path she feels she's expected to go down.
Her character was immediately likable, but not because she was a 'nice' person, more so because she was a strongly minded individual who wouldn't be intimidated by anyone, even a dangerously strong supernatural shifter who kept trying to push her buttons.

It was refreshing to have a lead female character who wasn't constantly falling all over herself to get with the main male character, spouting confessions of true love on every other page. Her stubborn determination not to have feelings for Levi actually increased the anticipation because it wasn't over as quickly as the usual 'boy meets girl, they fall in love, the end' type of story-line that you often find in the romance genre. I think the last page demonstrated her inner turmoil perfectly, the way she wants to despise Levi and yet can't stop her feelings for him no matter how much she wants to:

(Quote)

Levi pulled me tightly against him. "I love you. I have never felt this way before and the thought of losing you scares me."

"Because I don't love you." Even as the words left my lips, I knew they weren't true.

Levi was an excellent male lead and if anything there were times he was written so well that I wanted to punch him in the face; which just evidenced how 'real' Alyssa made her characters.
He seemed like a nice guy, obviously gorgeous and a typical player BUT he was also arrogant and over confident and at times completely infuriating, the way he wouldn't take no for an answer and kept pushing Allie in order to get his own way insistently. Maddening!

And the fact that he duped her into becoming his chosen mate....well lets just say I was completely torn on that one. On the one hand I wanted Allie to kick him to the curb immediately; giving her his family's ring under false pretenses and then sleeping with her to 'seal the deal' - of all the most idiotic things he could have done, the silly prince! But on the other hand I did feel that as much as it was a selfish and crazy thing to do, Levi clearly thought he was doing it for the right reasons i.e. that he really felt deeply for Allie and he was scared what would happen when she left for college.
He was just a great character overall, he didn't give too much away, being particularly evasive at times which only added to the intrigue about him and who he really was. I loved him one minute and then hated him the next but it was clear from their very first encounter that Allie and Levi would be perfect for each other because they challenged each other every step of the way; neither one willing to bow to the other's needs; and he did just seem to 'get her' from the start, knowing instinctively that Allie longed for adventure, for something more than her life as it was.

Surprisingly though, one of my favorite characters was actually one of the supporting characters; Jared!
The bad boy of the group, the pain in the arse, argumentative and moody play boy.
As much as Jared could be annoying and sometimes just down right rude, especially to Allie, it was clear there was more to him. Like for example, how it was mentioned in one of the scenes in the boys' apartment that Jared was the tidy one who made sure the place always looked presentable; that wasn't something you would imagine from the guy who could rather quickly go from acting normal to being super pissed off in a second flat.
And whilst I loved Allie and Levi's relationship (every encounter they had having me literally bubbling over with excitement!) I also enjoyed the budding friendship between Jared and Allie towards the end of the book.
After Allie's kidnapping ordeal, it was a nice surprise to find that Jared was the one who saved her, a good change to the usual cliche of the love interest being the knight in shining armor. And it was at that point that I think you could sense their friendship turning around:

(Quote)

"Jared?" I took a few steps towards him, tears of relief and fear slipping down my face.

He opened his arms, pulling me against his chest, letting me cry.

One of my favorite parts of the story was (not so typically) the part where the Pterons show Allie what they really are; jumping off the roof and having Allie convinced that they were jumping to their deaths.
I thought it was a really good way to introduce her to what/who they were; no serious lengthy conversations that can so often feel wordy and rather boring, just a good old show and tell which was kept to a minimum and therefore retained excitement throughout, especially as Allie watches everyone else jump off the building and she's left standing alone with Levi, anticipating what will come next:

(Quote)

"You said you wanted an adventure," he said quietly, teasingly, as he tightened his hold.

The overall thing I truly loved about this story was the fact that it wasn't about vampires or werewolves. Not that I don't like those, I love anything to do with paranormal/supernaturals BUT 'crow-shifters' was a completely amazing concept, so different and exciting and it was great to not be able to predict what would happen in terms of what the Pterons were capable of, what abilities they had etc.compared to vampire/werewolf stories where it's rather obvious what abilities the characters will have.
As much as it sounds complex, it actually wasn't, the story was relatively easy to follow, with the latter part of the book setting the scene with just enough intrigue, for the next book.

In my eyes, an absolutely wonderful YA book, enjoyable and at times intense. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who loves all things supernatural and anyone who loves a love story that isn't too predictable or without a few major bumps in the road. But trust me it's setting itself up to become an epic one that will build throughout the series and have you hankering for a love no less intense for yourself!

Hope you enjoyed the review, hopefully it'll make you want to read the book!